“We need to be able to tackle better than we did, especially in space and that’s what today and tomorrow will be about in practice,” coach Mark Richt said before the team’s two-and-a-half hour, full-pads practice. “It’s got to be a physical day for us. Tomorrow won’t be a whole lot different quite frankly because that’s the kind of battle we’re going to be in.”

I know it’s unusual to do that once the regular season starts, but it’s not like they don’t need the reps. And when I say “they”, I don’t just mean the freshmen.

Defensive back Damian Swann had the most glaring missed tackle that Clemson receiver Sammy Watkins turned into a 77-yard touchdown. Swann went low with his shoulder and bounced off.

“I just should have wrapped up,” Swann said. “I thought I could go and take his legs out without wrapping up.”

Having an off week after South Carolina makes this an easier move, but I still applaud it.

23 responses to “It’s a start.”

Missed tackles and penalties at critical times happen to the best of teams but the frequency that it happens with the Dawgs is symptomatic of lack of discipline/fundamentals. Are there any consequences of repeated failure to wrap up? Why does it always take a loss for Richt to see a problem and address it? We need coaches who can get a team prepared. Anyone can look at the tape after a game and say we need to fix some things. I remain convinced we have hit our sports ceiling with our current coaches and AD.

I love that he is addressing the glaring issue on defense. Too bad Gratham didnt address it in the preseason. It would be a nice to have a DC that could actually coach fundamentals. Boy that would be awesome.

If you want perfect evidence that Mark Richt and his staff have zero clue how to make adjustments, here it is. A primer on missed tackles was that 2008 meltdown against Georgia Tech, and here we are 5 years later still hearing about players trying to push and take out people rather than wrap up. You would think Richt and his seemingly perenially clueless assistants would have learned something from that tackling debacle, but with this program, it seems history always repeats itself. Sigh.

Right, its Bobo’s fault we gave up 38 points. Does Grantham have a multi-year contract? Regardless of the annual post-season noise from him and his agent, I doubt pro teams are interested in him as a DC, more like the position coach he was when we hired him. I still wonder what Bud Foster could have done with our recruits, but it seems obvious he won’t leave Va Tech for a DC job.

If Bobo had focused more on the fundamentals this off season we wouldn’t be in this situation. Bobo and Richt have never focused on the little thing, the fundamentals. Grantham is just hamstrung by having to practice against a no talent gimmick offense that couldnt score 60 on the road against a top 10 team. If we can’t out score the other team every week the defense doesnt even have a shot.

I cannot for the life of me understand how we got into the first game of the season without realizing our guys needed some tackling practice. I was never a college level player and I played at a class A high school. But what the heck, we went full contact every single day at practice. We also had tackling drills every day. Barely a few minutes passed that we weren’t knocking the crap out of one another. As far as we were concerned, that was the point of playing. Have things really changed that much?

Our young, unproven defensive backs had not participated in any contact of any consequence for most if not all of the summer drills. If you don’t practice tackling, you don’t tackle well. And here’s a news flash for the tone deaf…if you’re in green you’re not practicing tackling. Even our proven DBs were missing MASSIVE amounts of time in non-green jerseys. Of course they weren’t going to tackle well.

UGA is like “Ground Hog Day” the movie except we don’t learn from our mistakes we just keep doing what Bobby did at FSU only we aren’t in the ACC. Never go 1s on 1s in the fall, heck that might actually get us ready for a hard opener. Lets play patty cake and go swimming that’s the ticket. Thirteen years and Mark is still doing OJT but he can’t kick his Bobby Bowden habit. One thing about UGA you will never be disappointed if you just expect the worst.

I know that it has come up before. I wouldn’t have mentioned it but there is a world of difference between preparing for Clemson and preparing for Buffalo. The Scout Team just can’t show the speed even if they can show the scheme. That’s why the pre-season scrimmages are a joke. Richt has always said no 1s on 1s in preseason for fear of injury I guess.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record on this but: “It’s the scheduling, Stupid.” If you are going to have a disciplinary policy where players who break rules get suspended from games as punishment thereby causing some to miss the beginning of the season, and you don’t believe in full contact practice, then for Goodness sake, do NOT schedule a top 10 team as the first game on your schedule, particularly when you already know that you are going to play another top 10 team in the second game. Schedule a tune-up game first so the players get used to real contact and full speed play. THEN play difficult opponents. Morons. Absolute morons.

With respect to Swann, it is not just that he needs to wrap up, but he also needs to understand and follow basic hat placement principles taught at the most junior levels of football. He did not have his head across Watkins body, so Watkins was able to easily run through his right arm. This of course will continue to happen no matter how much Swann attempts to wrap up or how many bicep curls he does to strengthen his arm tackling abilities.

Perhaps Grantham can publicly comment how lousy the veteran OL played. Or the playcalls that had Marshall smashing into the middle repeatedly when clemson had everybody in the box. Or first & goal at the 2 and no game winning TD. Or delay of game penalty to start the second half.

Maybe Grantham can publicly suggest we ought to work on all that shit in practice too.

What you hear from this bunch if a lot of “I’ve should’ve”. What do you think we will hear Saturday night from this bunch after they get their ass kicked again. What did Pat Dye say awhile back…not man enought to play these guys. I watch some of the FSU game. I keep trying to figure out why all the “other teams” always look more physical and quicker thn the Dawgs”. Always thought Dooley’s team were physical. But never CMR. After the first 2-3 years of CMR all the linemen where gone, and all recruited by his predecessor. From that time on CMR’s team can win games but not the big ones. Never an upset with a statement. Never will!

Quote Of The Day

“Being a student at Georgia and playing ball, I’ve definitely grown, widened my horizons and experienced things I never thought I would. I feel like I’ve grown on and off the field, and the university prepared me for that. I’ve done some awesome things and met some awesome people. I’ll definitely be back to finish my schoolwork, because that was a big priority for me and my family and weighed heavily on my decision. I know football won’t last forever. It’ll be great to come back and get that degree, so I can tell my kids about it one day.” — Roquan Smith, AJ-C, 3/7/18